Tag Archives: chincoteague

Pete and Repeat

27 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by in Assateague, chincoteague, Eastern Shore, Hiking, National Parks, nature

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An old joke but still cracks me up – If Pete and Repeat were sitting on a fence and Pete flew away, who was left? Repeat. Ok, If Pete and Repeat were… and on and on it goes until someone tells you to stop it! What does that have to do with a nature hike post? Nothing, other than the fact we have repeated this trip to Assateague Island in Virginia a hundred times. And we never get tired of it. And we always seem to find a new adventure awaiting us – whether we are biking or hiking.

This particular trip was just to get out of the house before the rains came, have lunch and to look at the ocean from the parking lot. But the lot was closed so we decided to see what was going on.

Me wondering where all the sea shells are?

The beach is under a constant state of erosion and the Rangers/contractors are under a constant state of trying to fix it. I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that the Atlantic Ocean and Tom’s Cove will soon be connected. That at the rate of erosion, maybe by 2025 this stretch of the beach will be gone. So much for doomsday projections…Kathy and I headed over to the cove. Kathy was wondering how are we going to get over to that strip of land. The tide was the lowest we have ever seen it. Off in the distance is where we usually hike – The Bi-valve Trail.

Mostly hard sand but there were some pockets of mud.

Quite a few varieties of shells. Mostly empty oysters and mollusks. Some clams here and there.

Kathy’s photo of some bivalves.

And a very lonely, cold, star fish.

Time to head back and we thought this path would take us towards the beach. It didn’t.

It took us somewhere alien! I have an app on my phone called Google Lens, which if you take a photo with it, it will tell you what it is you photographed. The app didn’t know what to make of this.

We finally make it back to the parking lot. Amazing how it changes every time we visit. Bulldoze the sand up in a pile and the ocean just washes over it.

After walking around for a couple hours we then headed to the Crusty Crab at Greenbackville for a couple oyster sandwiches and their delicious coleslaw. Sat at the beach and ate. The tide was also low here…

Another great, repeat adventure with some new twists! Thanks GOD!

Keeping Our Distance

19 Thursday Mar 2020

Posted by in Eastern Shore, Hiking, nature, Trails

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On Friday the 13th, while at the gym, I asked one of the trainers what was the gym going to do about the current situation – Corona-virus? He said it was the main office’s call. I told him it was a pain in the ass for Kathy and I to wipe off our equipment, not only after we use it (which we have always done) but also before, because so many idiots do not wipe theirs down. Sunday night we decided we would not be going back to the gym. Monday afternoon the Governor announced all gyms to be closed. So now we hike and luckily there are a lot of places here on the Eastern Shore to go to having very little contact with people.

First hike Monday was the Salisbury Park which includes the Zoo. Short hike of 1.8 miles but a very brisk one.

Wednesday was a hike at Chincoteague. We usually ride our bikes there but opted to hike. This hike was about 3-1/2 miles at the Woodland Loop, Bi-valve trail and then along the bay.

Woodland trail
To the Pony Observation
Snake!
Pine cone slow pitch
wig
Shortcut thru woods, nope
Delmarva Fox Squirrel

Glad to be able to hike and I wish all to be well.

Bike, Beach and Drive-by

11 Sunday Aug 2019

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Another day trip to Chincoteague. We rode around the wildlife loop and instead of taking the Swan Cove Trail we headed to the service road. This is about a 7 mile road. The road wasn’t bad but the mosquitoes were terrible!

Lots of dead trees.

Headed to the beach via the OSV – Over Sand Vehicles entrance.

This wasn’t a bad road either.

Parked our bikes. Ran into a volunteer ranger and we asked about all the dead birds on Chincoteague Road bridge. 100s of them. She said they were fledgling seagulls, just learning to fly. They come up out of the marshes and because they are young, they can barely get the height they need to get over the bridge. Not to worry she said…there are a lot of them. Ugh!

Lots of birds and other life on the beach.

Ghost crab

Beach and ocean as far as you can see.

Aura around Kathy’s reflection.

Survey marker

Can never have too many seashells from the seashore!

Heading back, need to watch out for the 4 wheelers.

Took a different route home. Usually we take Chincoteague Road (Rte 175) to Rte 679, which turns into Rte 12 in Maryland. We turned on Rte 798 and went past Wallops NASA. Back to 679, turned at Captain’s Cove. This is on the Virginia side and put us in Greenbackville.

Next dinner date!

Left there and headed north to George Island Landing Road.

No windows or doors, but I have 3 boats.
This beach was all shells…
Years of piles upon piles
Everywhere are signs, blocking the scenery…
Might do, but doubt it
Nice launch and not crowded.
Old oyster house
Waiting for the ships to come in
New structure among the ruins.
Lots of shells
I’m looking through you..

Great day trip!

Chincoteague Bike/Hike

14 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by in Assateague, biking, Eastern Shore, Hiking

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Kathy and I cannot get enough of Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge. We did another bike ride through, with a small hike thrown in. As can be seen below, this was our path. According to the brochure, shown at the end of this blog, we only did about 8.3 miles, but with Google Maps we went over 9.7 miles. Either way, it was nice.

When we left the house on this adventure, our intent was to only do the Wildlife Loop and part of the Service Road, but we ended up leaving the Wildlife Loop on Black Duck Trail and headed towards the Woodland Trail. On that trail is a great trail – The Bivalve Trail. Afterwards we went back to the Wildlife Loop and the Swan Cove Trail and eventually the ocean.

Pumping-restoring the marsh
Black Duck Trail
Pony Pens
Woodland Trail
Road less traveled on left
Wishes in waiting
Off-road biking
End of road – off bikes and hike
Looking left
Looking right
What is that?
Getting close
After conferring with a couple of people, Merrill and Phil,
This is a reflector for Wallops Island (NASA)
NASA in distance

Views along this path…

The Fiddler
Who am I?
Long ago puffer
Contemplation
Abandoned

Back to the bikes and onto the Woodland Trail

Pony Pens
Ponies
Swan Cove Trail to ocean
Marshes drying up
Map Paths

Another wonderful adventure! Thanks God

Bicycle

07 Friday Jun 2019

Posted by in biking, Hiking, National Parks, nature

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Whenever I ride my bike, a variety of songs pop into my head – “I ride my bike, I roller skate don’t drive no car” (Brand New Key by Melanie). But we needed to drive my truck to get to ride our bikes!

Then pops in: “I’ve got a bike. You can ride it if you like
It’s got a basket, a bell that rings and
Things to make it look good
I’d give it to you if I could, but I borrowed it.” (Bike by Pink Floyd) But we took the basket off of Kathy’s and she hasn’t got a bell yet.

So I guess we will just settle on “Bicycle, bicycle, bicycle, I want to ride my bicycle” (Bicycle Race by Queen). We headed to Chincoteague for our first outing together. I use to ride my bike around Montebello Lake when I was working. This is my first time out this year. Kathy’s co-workers gave her money to buy a bike when she retired. She picked out a cruiser.

The Wildlife Loop is a 3.2 mile adventure. We went around twice. Kathy looking for the eagles. Saw the nest. None of the eagle babies survived this year.

Next stop is the Swan Cove Trail, which is 1 mile round trip.

Nice path that takes you to the ocean.

Park the bikes…

…and walk over the dunes to this.

An old stump with seashell ornaments.

Back on the bikes to continue the loop. Saw lots of egrets, ducks and red wing blackbirds.

Another pit stop along the way. An observation platform. No bikes allowed.

Oh yea, we saw a mud turtle.

A type of dandelion?

Making wishes…

Our National Park selfie.

Great day of bikes, nature, beach and God!

Chincoteague

03 Monday Jun 2019

Posted by in Eastern Shore, Hiking, National Parks

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The beach, an island and a memorial.

A bunch of these roaming around.

Holes everywhere.

Plovers.

Horseshoe crab that didn’t make it.

The surf.

Rode through town to the far end of the beach and found a Waterman’s Memorial Park.

People placed pennies and seashells on the marker.

Odd little section of the island. The paths looked to be scrapped up road asphalt.

Nice view though.

Heading back to the car.

C.C. Rider.

Nice day for a mini adventure.

Chincoteague

15 Friday Feb 2019

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We haven’t hiked here since May 2017. It is nice living close by. Less than an hour away. Kathy and I needed a nice little road trip. Selling homes, moving, moving again and retiring is a lot of work!

It was chilly and very windy on both the ocean and bay sides of the island. One large sand dune blocks the ocean from the parking lot, for the whole length of the lot. Kathy and Molly climbing over the dunes.

Glad I didn’t take my good camera – I’ve ruined two of them over the years from sand getting into them. The sand was stinging our faces. Looking up the beach.

After getting sandblasted on the ocean beach, we headed to bay side – Tom’s cove.

Windy still but nice. The snow geese were hanging out.

Including I believe, the Adult Blue Morph.

Seagulls were plentiful and a delight to watch (Always better watching them on the beach than at Thrasher’s!) 

This guy, below, kept picking this object up, dropping it to crack it open and then taking it to the pool to wash it off. He discovered that it wasn’t edible.

Heading away from the ocean and driving to the mainland we saw this guy.

And this guy off in the distance, standing away from the rest of the herd.

Seeing the lighthouse off in the distance we headed that way.

Belongs to the Coast Guard. Last time we were here, there were way too many people to get a half way decent shot.

Historic info.

Nice day for a much needed hike. The park police did stop us to inform us that it is illegal to bring a pet onto a National Wildlife Refuge. Never would have guessed that Molly doesn’t count as wildlife!